After the announcement that Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant was coming to our shores for the 2013 instalment of Byron Bay’s Bluesfest Festival, excitement rapidly began to build around the festival. Riding upon this excitement, the organisers have unleashed a mammoth round of intimate club shows sure to rustle your jimmies in the best possible way.

Encouraging punters to go clubbing, not like the “neanderthals” at Soho Fridays, but like proper Bluesfest attendees. Including the likes of Jimmy Cliff, a solo Jon Anderson show, Wanda Jackson, Seth Lakeman and a stack more, these shows will bypass the larger venues of Australia, opting for many smaller clubs, which will make securing tickets harder, but the shows will be even more special.

However, the more exciting aspect of the press release came in the closing statements, in which they told of how, come this Sunday (11th of the 11th) they would be unveiling a “Special Bluesfest Artist”, which will feature a big name, stating that this artist “might be bigger than Robert Plant…”. Like many of you, we’re scratching our heads wondering how they can top Robert Plant without booking either The Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin themselves, but it’s only a matter of days until we find out.

The dates for the aforementioned sideshows are listed below; however, you will have to stick with us as it is a seriously long list. But with this many good artists, you can hardly complain can you.